Articles written by Margaret Bauman

Two commercial fisheries veterans are renovating a former helicopter logging barge in Sitka this summer, with plans to use it as a floating processor in Bristol Bay in 2018, flash freezing up to... Full story

Dynamic conditions and predators in the waters of the North Pacific Ocean notwithstanding, Alaska's lucrative commercial shellfish industry faces growing challenges from ocean acidification and... Full story

A supermarket ad in Anchorage newspapers in early March boasted of fresh cod fillets for $6.99 a pound, subject to fishing and weather conditions. The same supermarket flyer offered an assortment of... Full story

From its campuses to broad based research in the field, the University of Alaska's College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences has for decades produced a wellspring of talent to enhance fisheries on a loc... Full story

A summer's worth of research, including some 400 bottom tows, is over, giving federal researchers the data needed to proceed with recommending crab harvest totals that will assure a sustainable crab... Full story

While European Union leaders wrestle with what their economic future will be after Britain's exit, Alaska's fisheries economists are keeping a close watch, and trying to calculate how the political... Full story

From Unalaska's Dutch Harbor in the Bering Sea, to the bustling commercial fishing hubs of Southeast Alaska, millions of dollars in port upgrades are underway and in the planning stages, aided by... Full story

Groundfish fisheries under way in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands harvested thousands of metric tons of fish through early March, with pollock vessels and Pacific cod trawl catcher vessels showing particular strength. “Fishing has been excellen... Full story

To be labeled "Alaska pollock" the mild flavored white fish, employed by chefs in everything from seafood salads to fish sticks and filets, must now be harvested from Alaska waters. Otherwise, says... Full story

Alaska's legendary crab fisheries, as portrayed in the Discovery Channel television series "Deadliest Catch," underscore the dangers of bringing in the succulent king crab while battling the stormy,... Full story

With Alaska's commercial halibut fishery underway, for a harvest limit of 18,474,000 pounds, federal fisheries managers are continuing to wrestle with the thorny issue of halibut caught incidentally... Full story

Twenty-five years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and millions of dollars in research, marine scientists still have no conclusions about the relationship between that environmental disaster and the demise of Pacific herring in Prince William... Full story

Canadian mining officials in British Columbia are investigating a tailings pond dam rupture that released an estimated 14.5 million cubic meters of mine wastes into the Fraser River watershed,... Full story

Major fishing ports and harbors critical to Alaska's economy are in the midst of designing, construction and fund sourcing in the spring of 2014, to meet needs ranging from float replacements to... Full story

A new sportfishing group on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula is proposing a ban on commercial set net fishing in areas it identifies as "urban" part of the state, including Cook Inlet. The announcement from t... Full story

Humpies proved a deciding factor in Alaska’s 2013 commercial salmon harvest of 272 million fish valued at $691.1 million. Powered by a record harvest of 219 million pink salmon, this year’s harvest ranks as the second most valuable on record, sai... Full story

In the grocery section of a Walmart store in Anchorage, hard by refrigerated units holding a variety of frozen meat and poultry, is a smaller freezer area displaying wild salmon fillets, the bulk of... Full story

By Margaret Bauman Prices are down a bit, but demand remains strong, as harvesters of Alaska’s deadliest catch, albeit multi-million dollar crab fishery await stock survey results that will determine quotas for the 2013-2014 fishery. Online markete... Full story

Autumn has set in on Alaska’s Lower Yukon River, where the fall harvest of those oil-rich Yukon chum salmon is in progress, a fishery that feeds the regional economy with seafood sales in markets... Full story

Amidst the ongoing political wrestling match over construction of a massive mine at the headwaters of the Bristol Bay watershed, there was music in early August, lots of it, as more than 5,000 people... Full story

Alaska’s statewide wild salmon harvest topped 35 million fish by July 8, including overall strong returns at Chignik, Kodiak, Copper River and the Alaska Peninsula, while the Bristol Bay fleet was... Full story

The famed Copper River district salmon fishery is running well ahead of forecast and as of June 10 appeared to be likely to have a robust regular commercial fishing schedule, with openers twice... Full story

Federal fisheries managers voted June 8 in Juneau to put a 7,500-fish limit on Chinook salmon bycatch by some 60 bottom trawlers harvesting flatfish, rockfish and Pacific cod in the Gulf of Alaska. The action during the June meeting of the North... Full story

The first commercial fishing openers on Yukon River salmon will come around mid-June, and with a forecast of average to above average runs of both summer and fall chums, Kwik’Pak Fisheries is optimistic about a good season. “It looks very good... Full story

A new longliner set to enter Alaska’s cod hook-and-line fishery in October 2014 will offer state-of-the-art environmental and safety advantages, and an ultimate goal of 100 percent utilization of... Full story